Scientist Harry Braus, Victim Of Mccarthyism

March 07, 1993|By New York Times News Service.

CINCINNATI — Harry Braus, a Chicago-born scientist who developed a method to identify and measure organic pollutants in air and water but was forced from government service at the height of McCarthyism, has died at age 78.

Mr. Braus died of pneumonia Monday in a Cincinnati hospital.

While working for the U.S. Public Health Department in the early 1950s, Mr. Braus used activated carbon to filter large quantities of air or water and then analyzed the collected contaminants. The method made it possible to detect pollutants that were significant even though dispersed over large areas.

His government career ended at the height of the Communist-hunting crusade led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) in the 1950s. Mr. Braus was accused of being a Communist, which he denied.

He joined the U.S. Industrial Research Co. in Cincinnati as a senior research chemist, where he invented more than 50 products and methods that won patents.